


Words Left Unspoken

by CryoCait



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, F/M, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Beauregard Lionett/Yasha, Post-Canon, but like, its okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:46:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28189428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CryoCait/pseuds/CryoCait
Summary: Jester died at sunrise.After losing Jester in childbirth, Marion wrought with grief, and no one having a clue who the father is, Caleb is the one to step up to fatherhood and take in the baby. But grief is a tricky thing, and raising the daughter of your lost love only makes it harder.Luckily, no one ever said Caleb had to do it alone.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast, Marion Lavorre | Ruby of the Sea & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 12
Kudos: 81





	Words Left Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Exalted_Dawn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exalted_Dawn/gifts).



> Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!  
> This hurt so good to write, but aren't those the best?  
> Happy Secret Santa, Ed! I hope you enjoy my angst-fueled Adderall-fueled chaos gift to you!

Jester died at sunrise.

The death wasn’t painful, or long, or even sad. It was in childbirth, of all things.

The baby came three weeks early, and most of the Nein hadn’t yet arrived in Nicodranas to be there for her, Caduceus included. In the end, she was too weak to heal herself and by the time Caduceus arrived, the cost of Resurrection was out of the picture for the party, all of them having long since leaving behind their days of high risk- high reward adventures leaving their pockets flush with gold.

She got to hold her daughter, Adrienne, and see her first smile and hear her first wail before she slipped away.

“Don’t you _dare_ cry!” She managed to get out to all of them before she went. “Today is a _very_ good day.” She smiled down at Adrienne. “So, so good.”

In the end, it was Fjord, Veth, Caleb, and Marion at her side when she died.

The room felt weighted down with rocks, and only the piercing scream from the small, blue bundle in the midwife’s arms cut through the silence as they all sit there in shock, tears running down their faces.

“It wasn’t Artagan, was it?” Fjord asked her when she finally returned.

Jester never did disclose who the father was. She had simply left on a trip to “uncover a secret” suddenly one day and came back seven months later with a rounded belly.

Jester screwed her face into a disgusted expression.

“First? _Ew._ Second, it doesn’t matter! What matters is they are going to be _so_ loved by me, and you, and everyone that who their birth Dad is won’t even cross their mind! It won’t just be the two of us this time.” _Not like me._ It went unsaid but plainly understood.

And so that was the plan. Jester would raise her mystery child with all the Mighty Nein functioning as doting Aunts and Uncles. They’d be the biggest, wildest, least functional family in Wildemount, and that was _exactly_ as Jester wanted it.

Caleb, cocked his brow at Fjord.

“So you’re really not the father?” He asked. Fjord sighed.

“For the last time, Caleb, if I was the Dad I’d be running around this place screaming in terror at the top of my lungs. I don’t think I have it in me to be a Father.”

They had moved out of the delivery room where Jester’s body still lay. Marion hadn’t yet left her side. They doubted she would for some time.

The midwife had entered minutes earlier, asking who was going to be taking the child, and none of them had an answer for her.

“I’m just going to throw it out there, but I don’t think Marion will be up to taking her.” Veth said. Marion’s voice still softly flowed from the delivery room as she sang to her baby girl one last time.

“I doubt it either. What about you, Veth?” Fjord asked. “It’s a big ask, but would you and Yeza..?”

Veth huffed out a laugh, brushing away a few stray tears. “My house is Halfling sized, I don’t have the _space.”_

“Right.”

The trio sat in silence for a what felt like forever.

“I’ll do it.”

Veth and Fjord turned to Caleb, taken aback.

Caleb hadn’t said a word since they had been hastily ushered out of the delivery room, simply sitting there in shocked silence, his ears ringing.

_She’s gone._

_She’s gone._

_She’s gone._

It was only the sound of Veth’s rough laughter that pulled him from his reverie. He processed the conversation he heard at breakneck speed, realizing they were discussing Adrienne’s future.

Adrienne, Jester’s daughter. Adrienne, the only thing Jester could talk of for months. Adrienne, the truest love of his truest love.

Adrienne wailed again from the other room and Caleb’s heart broke in half.

He couldn’t leave her alone. He just couldn’t.

“Caleb…really? I mean, don’t take this the wrong way but I never really pegged you for the paternal type.” Veth said, eyebrows practically vanishing into her hairline in surprise.

Caleb sniffed. Right, he was crying.

“My house is big. I can teleport, so she can see Marion as much as she wants, and I can afford to take some time off. They can do without me for a little while at the Academy.”

And that was how three weeks, a funeral, and countless assurances of twice weekly visits to Marion later, Caleb found himself sitting with an infant in his sitting room in Rexxentrum.

Adrienne, as it turned out, was exactly like her mother.

Even before Adrienne’s existence in his life, Caleb’s four bedroom had always been the primary hub for the Mighty Nein. Afterwards, however, Caleb quickly found himself never being want for company. Beau and Yasha dropping in for a week during a visit from Zadash, Fjord trekking up for a month out of every year between visits, Caduceus floating in and out “when it feels right”, and Veth, Yeza, and Luc making themselves right at home whenever one of Yeza’s experiments destroyed a room in the house that needed rebuilding.

And Adrienne _loved_ it.

She loved the love and affection her family gave her, laughing and squealing with excitement whenever a new member of the Nein arrived at their door.

But, no matter how much she loved the others, it was still Caleb who she clung to at night. Caleb, who changed her diapers and fed her and turned a blind eye as she finger-painted all over the dining room walls with ink she must’ve found on a stack of papers on the ground somewhere not long after she learned to crawl and managed to continuously _zoom_ out of Caleb’s line of sight even though he had _thought_ he had fully baby-proofed the house.

He loved her more than words.

It was late one night, after he had tucked her into her crib and she had long since fallen asleep, that they received a new guest.

Caleb was sitting in the simple wooden rocking chair in the corner of her room, finishing grading a few essays for a colleague who needed an extra pair of eyes during final exams and whom he took enough pity on to help during his sabbatical, that he suddenly felt heard the _squeak_ of wood at the doorway.

“So that’s her, huh?” Standing in the doorway, looking more sheepish than Caleb had ever seen him, Artagan stood, staring at the crib.

He walked towards the crib slowly, as if approaching a wild animal.

Caleb took a moment to allow his heartrate to calm after the sudden appearance. He had wondered about Artagan, curious if he’d ever see him without _her_ around anymore. If he’d ever come to see the last piece of her left behind.

Idly, Caleb noted that it still hurt to so much as think her name.

“ _Ja._ Her name is Adrienne. She’ll be ten months next week.” Caleb watched as Artagan stared down at her, his expression ever so slightly awed.

“She’s so- _tiny._ I honestly don’t know what I expected.”

“Do you want to hold her?” Caleb asked. Artagan’s eyes jumped to his as he backed away from the crib.

“No, no I shouldn’t.” But Caleb was already walking to the crib. With a practiced ease, he carefully lifted her from the crib, adjusting her and walking her over to Artagan, easing her into his arms.

“Hold your elbow a bit higher, just like that. There you go, not so hard, is it?”

Caleb watched as Artagan walked over to the chair he was just sitting in- the only one in the room- _he really needed to change that-_ and sunk down, Artagan’s eyes never once leaving the sleeping bundle in his arms. Caleb settled himself on a small stack of books in the corner.

“This is my fault.” Artagan said finally, after what felt like an eternity. That caught Caleb’s attention.

“So you _are_ the father, then? Fjord certainly thinks so.”

Artagan laughed. It was wet, Caleb realized, with tears.

“No, no. But I’m the reason she left. She took off to Tal’Dorei for me, trying to hunt down an old adventuring party I knew once, see if they knew where an old artifact went. I was jokingly ribbing her one time that had never, _well_ , and she- she took it personally as a challenge. And here we are. Baby. My fault _twice._ ” Artagan’s finger ran softly over her soft blue tuft of hair.

“Do you know who the father is?” Caleb asked softly. _Do I need to prepare myself to lose another Lavorre I love?_

“Dead. He was her guide into this cursed tomb and let’s just say things did _not_ end pretty. Jester barely made it out and at that point we both decided it was for the best to cut the quest short. Never will find out what happened to Vecna’s hand, but oh well.”

_“So that was why she was unconcerned about the father”_ Caleb thought. It had always struck him as odd, given her need to find her own father, who had _not_ taken her passing easily, and who had calmly asked that he never meet the baby.

“Do you miss her?”

Artagan’s somber expression grew somehow darker.

“She was my dearest friend, Caleb Widogast. I miss her every day.”

The two sat in the silence of the night for hours, and it wasn’t until the sun started peeking in through the windows that Artagan finally stood, setting Adrienne back into her crib. She shifted a little, and Caleb knew that meant she’d soon be waking up and demanding breakfast.

“Can I- can I see her again? Jester used to say she couldn’t wait to get to call me ‘Uncle Artie’ to her little one, and I’d like to try and be that. I think I could be a good Uncle Artie.” Artagan asked. Caleb smiled.

“I think she’d like that very much.” Whether he meant Adrienne or Jester, he couldn’t tell.

And so Caleb’s family grew.

It was two weeks before her first birthday when Adrienne spoke her first words.

Marion had come to stay for a month, an occurrence that had started becoming more and more common as she started finding herself again through her grief. Caleb had been making the promised twice weekly visits to the Lavish Chateau for her to see her granddaughter. It was awkward at first, to say the least of it. Caleb didn’t know where he fit in to the equation of her family. To Marion, he was simply the friend of her daughter that she had met a handful of times who was now raising the child of her dead daughter.

Marion’s heart, however, was large enough to fit him with ease.

“Caleb.” She said to him, several months into their odd arrangement, “I need you to know that I consider you part of my family now.” She glanced over to Adrienne, asleep in the hulking arms of Bluud, who had quietly and immediately come to love her more than anything else in his life. “ I feel guilty every single day that I haven’t been able to, haven’t been strong enough to take her myself. I don’t know how you’re doing it.”

Caleb’s throat was tight as Marion took his hands in hers.

“I barely knew her in comparison to you. What is a few years friendship to the grief of a mother? I have no place to feel the anguish you have.”

Marion’s hands tightened around his. She gave him a hard look, the piercing one he knew she used on her clients to understand everything about them.

“But you were in love with her, weren’t you?” She said, giving him that knowing look.

Caleb’s mind went blank with panic. “I mean I-“ She held up a hand, stopping him.

“It’s fine, Caleb. A mother knows when a man looks at her daughter in love. I knew it the moment I met you for the second time. After you had cleaned up, and after, she told me, you took her to dance.”

The silence was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“I- _ja._ I did. I do.” He finally choked out. “But she never, I was never- I wasn’t ever good enough for someone like her.”

Marion _tsk-ed_ lightly, letting go of his hands and leaning back in her seat, reaching out and grabbing her cup of tea, taking a sip.

“Well. We’ll never know if that is or isn’t true, but I can tell you this much. Jester loved you dearly. I was never able to confirm if it was romantic or not, but when she first came back pregnant I was positive you were the father. I was shocked when she said you weren’t, I was expected a blue-skinned, red-haired grandbaby.”

Caleb sputtered again, his faculties leaving him entirely. Marion laughed lightly.

“What I’m saying, darling, is I’ve been preparing to call you a member of my family for a _long_ time. This isn’t the way I expected it to happen, but life rarely plays out as planned. In every way that matters, Caleb Widogast, you _are_ my son now. And you’re stuck with me, come hell or high water.”

And so Caleb’s family grew once again, and Marion began spending more and more time with him in his home in Rexxentrum.

He could only stay away from the Academy for so long, and Marion was more than happy to take some quality time with her “Little Opal” while Caleb went back to teaching classes. She had started taking more and more time away from the Lavish Chateau.

“I’m ambling towards retirement.” She told him one night, dancing around the living room with Adrienne laughing in her arms.

It was early spring, and Adrienne had just started walking a few weeks prior, and the combination of _“Addie is almost one”_ and _“Addie is walking”_ lead to the Mighty Nein descending upon Caleb’s home like locusts. Marion’s space was very much her own, and he was loathe to deny her of it, so Caleb moved Adrienne’s crib into his room and converted the nursery and spare bedroom into a makeshift hostel for his friends.

“It’s fine, I can take the couch.” Fjord said, allowing the Brenatto’s the spare bedroom to themselves.

Yasha and Beau found a mattress _somewhere_ “Don’t ask.” Beau said, as she heaved it up the steps, and Caduceus promised a simple bedroll on the floor was more than enough for him.

“The beds here are a bit short for me anyway. No offence.”

And so Caleb’s home, dubbed “the Headquarters” by Beau and Veth, was packed to capacity to watch as Adrienne looked up at Caleb from her toy horse, pointed up at him, and with the confidence of her mother graffiti-ing a holy temple, said-

“Dada.”

Everyone in the room froze.

Beau and Fjord froze mid-spar, Yasha’s harp and Marion’s lilting voice singing along went well, and Caleb’s heart froze in his chest.

“No, _mein schatz,_ no. I’m not your father.” Caleb sunk down on his knees, forcibly reminding himself that he did, in fact, have to breathe. “I’m Uncle Caleb, remember? Uncle Caleb.”

“Dada.” Adrienne’s brows furrowed as she said it again, as if correcting him.

“Yeah, kid, that’s Dad right there.” Beau voice said from behind him and walked over to him, sitting down across from him and scooping Adrienne into her lap. “That’s your Daddy.”

“Beauregard-“

“Are you kidding me, man? Like it or not, you're this kid’s Dad now. You have been since day one.”

“She’s right.” Fjord chipping in from his spot in the corner, wiping off his sweat from the spar with his sleeve. “You’re the one who’s been raising her, watching her, loving her, feeding her. That’s all things Dad’s do.”

Caleb stared at them both in confusion and mild panic.

“But you’ve been doing that as well. Marion has, Essek even, when he’s here.”

“Exactly,” Beau responded. “We do _when we’re here._ We leave. You don’t. You’re her constant. That’s what Dads are supposed to be.”

Caleb realized, with a start, that he was crying.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t wanted to be a father, or even that he didn’t want to be the father of Jester’s child. He had, _gods_ he had. When he had nights during their travels where his mind went especially dark, he would lie in his bed in the tower and picture their life together. He would be the stay at home spouse as she ran a bakery, or started another cult, or _whatever_ it was that she wanted. He would’ve followed her anywhere and just been there for her. He wanted a gaggle of little ones that called her Mama and him Papa more than _anything_ in the world but just-

Just not like this.

It was Marion’s hand that he felt on his shoulder.

“Do you need a minute?” She asked him gently. He nodded, stood, and silently walked out of the room. He trusted her to not explain to the others what he knew she knew.

He sat on a bench in his back garden for what had to be at least an hour, processing.

It hurt, everything hurt.

It was then that Caleb realized with a start that he had never properly processed the loss of Jester in his life. The weeks following her death were pandemonium, learning on the fly how to raise a child and suddenly being thrust with the responsibility of the most important life in the universe being left in his arms. He never got a chance to say goodbye, not really. Not enough.

“I can’t do this without you, Jester.” He whispered to the air, blowing gently around him. “ _Please, mein liebe,_ don’t make me do this _alone.”_

_“Cay-leb.”_ He heard behind him. “You’re not alone and you know that.”

Caleb’s heart caught in his chest as his entire body turned to ice.

Caleb’s head turned, achingly slowly and entirely against his will, to face the voice behind him as he rose to his feet.

And there, sitting with her feet dangling into the small pond in the corner of the garden, was Jester.

His feet were frozen to the ground.

“You’re dead, Jester. You’re not here.” He managed to choke out.

She shrugged, producing a hunk of bread from her bag, ripping off a piece and feeding it to one of the ducks floating lazily in the pond.

“I mean, _yeah,_ but that doesn’t mean it’s not _me.”_

It took everything in his body to move his feet towards her, finally sitting down next to her and taking her in.

It was _her._

Jester sat there, happily feeding ducks as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn’t died a year prior, as if it was a normal sleepy afternoon and she was staying with him for a week or two, invading his life and consuming his entire being.

“How?” He croaked, his voice barely managing its way out of his throat.

She cocked her eyebrow at him, smiling.

_Gods, her smile._ He thought, soaking her in with eyes.

“I thought you were the smart, nerdy one of the group, Caleb. Put it together, it’s not _that_ hard.”

He just continued to stare at her, unable to form words.

She groaned, slumping a little.

“ _Ugh,_ come _on,_ Cay-leb. Back to reality, please.” She said, snapping her fingers in front of his eyes, pulling him back to her. “Is it really that difficult to figure out? You’re _dreaming,_ Caleb. You fell asleep on the bench.”

Caleb’s heart sank. _Of course, you foolish man._ He thought. _Of course she’s not actually back._

“So, you’re just a figment of my imagination, then. Here to torture me.”

Jester _thwack-_ ed him over the head with her hunk of bread.

“ _No._ I’m still me, I’m just dead. Do you know how hard it is to pull off what I’m pulling off?” She said. “I guilted one of the Raven Queen’s guys into giving me a few minutes to talk to someone down here. You know, he reminds me a lot of you, come to think of it. His name’s Vax. Real broody type, but with a mischievous glimmer in him. Just like you, huh?” She nudged his side.

She let out a breath, and he realized how _nervous_ she looked. How sad.

She glanced towards the door into the house.

“How is she?” She asked. It was barely more than a whisper.

He followed her gaze back to the door he knew her daughter lay right behind.

“She’s perfect.”

Jester’s smile was painted with heartbreak.

“I knew she would be. I could feel it.”

She fiddled with the bread still in her hand, ripping off a piece and holding it out to a nearby duck, only for it to swim away from her. She huffed. “This is _dumb._ They’re not even real ducks! You couldn’t even have your dream ducks pay attention to me, Cay-leb?”

That was what broke the tension holding Caleb’s body hostage. He snorted out a laugh, and instantly lost control of his body yet again, this time doubling over in peals of laughter. It must have been infectious, as Jester quickly joined him, tears running down both of their faces in grief and laughter.

Slowly, the laughter died down into a comfortable silence. Jester smiled as she wiped a few stray tears off her cheeks.

“They’re right, though, Caleb. You _are_ her Dad now. Like it or not. Which you do, you really like it, I can tell.” She said, readjusting herself and throwing the rest of the bread into the pond with a _plop._

Caleb huffed out a breath, unsure of what to say.

“I do, I just- _you’re_ her mother, Jester, and I don’t want to take away from that.” Caleb ran his hands through his hair. Jester snorted.

“You being her Dad doesn’t take away from that, you poop. It just means you’re there for her and you love her. I’ll always be her Mama, but that doesn’t mean you’re not her Papa, too.”

Caleb squeezed his eyes shut tight. His dreams flashed behind his eyelids. The gaggle of children, the fantasy of their future together, impossible.

“Jester, I…” He trailed off. He opened his eyes to see her watching him, gently smiling.

“Caleb, if the next words out of your mouth aren’t some romantic confession of love, then you’re _really_ missing the whole point of the whole _‘dead mother of your child coming to visit you from the afterlife’_ thing.”

Involuntarily, he grimaced.

“You deserve more than me, Jester.”

Jester threw up her hands in exasperation.

“Holy shit, Cay-leb! I’m dead! I’m literally dead, and you still can’t tell me you’re in love with me? It’s not like I can go live some full life with some other guy, I’m a fucking ghost!” She stopped herself. “Okay, I’m not a _ghost,_ but I _am_ super dead!”

She leaned forward, putting her hands on his shoulders, looking him in the eye.

“Caleb Widogast, the adoptive father of my child, I am so stupidly in love with you it isn’t funny. I _literally_ came to see you from the dead I love you so much. It’s transcended death. That’s a _lot._ Now. I don’t have forever here, so you either need to tell me I’ve _really_ been reading the room wrong for years, or you need to kiss me _right now.”_

And so, finally, after far too long, Caleb Widogast’s lips met Jester Lavorre’s.

He didn’t know if it was because it was in a dream, or simply because he didn’t have the brain power to process anything other than _Jester Jester Jester Jester,_ but for the first time in his life, Caleb had no idea how long the two of them stayed wrapped around each other, taking in _finally_ having the other in their arms.

They did, eventually, break apart, Jester resting her forehead on his, catching her breath.

“Okay. Wow.” She laughed. Caleb chuckled.

“I- I have wanted to do that for far too long.” He said, smiling. Jester stroked her thumb along his cheek, her smile growing somber.

“I have to go soon. My time is running out, it’s getting harder to hold this, and they’re going to start getting worried about you and wake you up.”

Caleb squeezed his eyes shut, willing her to stay.

“How am I supposed to let you go, Jester? I can’t do it.” He choked out. She stroked his cheek again, and he opened his eyes to see her smiling at him, her eyes misty.

“You raise our daughter, Caleb. You raise her and you love her, and when you think of me and start to get sad, remember how much you love her instead.” She paused, contemplating for a moment. “Okay, miss me a _little,_ but mostly? Just- be _happy,_ Caleb. Even if that means you find someone else to love besides me.”

His heart constricted in his chest. “I’m sorry I was an idiot, and we never had our time together, _mein liebe.”_

She laughed, the tears spilling over.

“We got it. We just didn’t get enough.” She leaned in and kiss him again, softly, but fiercely. When she finally pulled away from him, she had her trademark beam on her face. “Besides! The afterlife? _Not too shabby._ You’ll see me again, Caleb Widogast. In the meantime?” She looked towards the door again. “In the meantime, there’s a little girl in there that’s probably really missing her Dad.”

Caleb took her in, capturing every detail of his face, willing himself not to forget a single eyelash.

“I love you, Jester.” He said, holding her hand to his face. Her smile softened.

“Well, it’s about time you said so!” Jester laughed. “I love you too, Caleb. And I’m always here, even if you can’t see me.” She poked his chest. “Right there. In your heart. It’s a big place, I think I can find a corner of it for myself.”

“It’s all yours, Jester. Every piece of it.” He was starting to get lightheaded, and he knew he was about to wake up, and she was about to be gone.

Jester stood, helping Caleb rise to his feet. She keep her fingers woven with his as she walked him back to the bench he knew he was asleep on, propped up against the tree beside it. He sat down, taking the position he knew his physical body was in.

Jester leaned down, kissing him one last time.

“Smell you later, Caleb. I gotta go mess with more dead people!” Jester started backing away from him as his vision got hazier. “Stay safe, okay? I don’t wanna see you again for a _long_ time, got it? I want lots of wrinkles next time!”

She turned away from him, and walked out of the garden as his vision burned white.

“-leb? _Caleb.”_ He felt a rough shake on his shoulder. He opened his eyes, seeing Beau kneeling in front of him. “Are you okay, man? You took off and just vanished. It’s almost time for dinner.”

“Oh, I- sorry. I fell asleep.” Caleb looked around the garden, his heart still thrumming in his chest. Beau laughed.

“I can tell. Hey, I’m sorry about throwing that at you earlier. If you wanna just be Uncle Caleb, I wouldn’t blame you for that.”

The breeze on the back on his neck was warm, and if he turned in just the right direction, it almost like a hand, holding him up a bit taller.

“No. I can, I _have_ been her father for a while now. I just never really said it out loud. If I said it out loud, she was gone. But she is, and I am, and I think that’s okay.” He looked up at Beau, who stood and gave him a hand up. “You said something about dinner?”

Adrienne Uma Widogast-Lavorre had a wild and wonderful family. She had her Uncle Artie who taught her to play pranks and get out of trouble. She had her Uncle Fjord who taught her how to sail ships on the open sea, and Uncle Caduceus who helped her learn to cook and how to grow a garden. She had her Aunts Beau and Yasha, who taught her how to fight and snuck her toys and candy and firecrackers and whisked her away on grand adventures and her Aunt Veth, Uncle Yeza, and cousin Luc who taught her science and mathematics. She even had her Grandma, who taught her how to sing, and loved her _so_ much she sometimes had a hard time wrapping her head around how much she loved her. 

But above all, she had her Papa. Her Dad, who loved her more than anything else in the world, who told her stories, and braided her hair, and kissed all of her cuts and bruises and made them all better.

Her Papa told her she had a Mama too, but that she wasn’t there anymore not because she didn’t love Adrienne, but because she realized that even ghosts need a good prank from time to time.

Sometimes she’d catch her Papa out in the garden, feeding the ducks and talking to her Mama, and she knew he was right, and her Mama _was_ there. She could feel it. And sometimes, if she listened hard enough, she could swear she could hear laughter in the wind that sounded just like her own.


End file.
